China expands its reach in the South China Sea. What's the end goal?

[Edison Chen]

I thought the basic of politic is that the army doesn't interfere with political movement? If a leader controls both the government and the army, I can only relate to one word: dictatorship. Does Xi look like he can become one?

Who said that? Look at all the current and past cases of coup, which army is not involved?

Why a dictatorship regime has political conflicts?

 

[xesy]

Who said that? Look at all the current and past cases of coup, which army is not involved?

Why a dictatorship regime has political conflicts?

Exactly my point. Whenever the military involves, there will be 90% chance of a coup in some kinds. I am not saying Xi is a dictator. But "absolute power brings absolute corruption". I want your opinion about Xi as a Chinese.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Is General Xu Caihou arrested, because he is closed to Bo Xilai to counter Mr. Xi , not for a reason related to corruption ?.What do you think ?

Yep, Bo Xilai is half Hokkien, so according to your compatriot EastSea, this is another political campaign against Baiyue.

 

[Rechoice]

Yep, Bo Xilai is half Hokkien, so according to your compatriot EastSea, this is another political campaign against Baiyue.

May be, but I have an Idea for that, this is struggle of two Prince-ling group, one is pro-Maoism (Bo Xilai) and another is still loyal to Deng Xiaoping's policy (Xi Jinping).

 

[Edison Chen]

Exactly my point. Whenever the military involves, there will be 90% chance of a coup in some kinds. I am not saying Xi is a dictator. But "absolute power brings absolute corruption". I want your opinion about Xi as a Chinese.

1, In reality, there is no absolute power. There is centralized structure with power being restricted by constitution and counterbalanced by other departments. In fact, it is because of the compromise and conflicts of people representing different groups of society that made our society running consistently, because this is the best way to optimize the benefit of majority and minimize the adverse effects that could be brought to vulnerable groups or minorities.

2, Some democracy countries also have serious corruption. You know it.

 

[xesy]

1, In reality, there is no absolute power. There is centralized structure with power being restricted by constitution and counterbalanced by other departments. In fact, it is because of the compromise and conflicts of people representing different groups of society that made our society running consistently, because this is the best way to optimize the benefit of majority and minimize the adverse effects that could be brought to vulnerable groups or minorities.

2, Some democracy countries also have serious corruption. You know it.

By corruption I didn't mean the leader will become corrupted, greedy and power-hungered. With greater power comes greater ambition. Leaders forget the original ideal, the promises made to the people and use his power as he see fits. If what he does benefit the majority, he is a good leader, otherwise he is a dictator. It's like two sides of the coin, and I don't want to target Xi for what he is doing. No one knows the future for sure.

Democracy gives leaders less power than communism, so that why communist leaders are more likely to corrupt compare to their democracy counterpart. That's what I believe.

 

[Edison Chen]

By corruption I didn't mean the leader will become corrupted, greedy and power-hungered. With greater power comes greater ambition. Leaders forget the original ideal, the promises made to the people and use his power as he see fits. If what he does benefit the majority, he is a good leader, otherwise he is a dictator. It's like two sides of the coin, and I don't want to target Xi for what he is doing. No one knows the future for sure.

Democracy gives leaders less power than communism, so that why communist leaders are more likely to corrupt compare to their democracy counterpart. That's what I believe.

You don't know China's politics, and you didn't understand my points as well.

It's not democracy that grants leader the power, but rather it's the trust coming from constituency, or we can say vote, in countries with democracy system. The power is confined and defined by the law. To how much extent the learder is abusing his power depends on the effectiveness of the law. And the law was born originally from thousands times of negotiations and coordination by the most people, their demand. This process could last hundreds off years. For example, the patent law system, which was first established in Venice and England, but it was being protested by the Germany, due to the interference to free trade. After hundreds of years, the patent law is complete. Yet lawmakers still are constantly making amendments and supplement to the law, to make it well fitted to the continuously changing economic and politic environment in today's world. I mean the democracy is just a form of organization of a regime, itself are not entitled to grant any power. Be it democracy with a diarchy regime or communism with an authoritarian regime, the power should be used within the limit of law's grant. So only if the leader does what most people want within the limits of authority, we believe he is fulfiling promise. It's not as simple as the leader's personal wish....the leaders always have to counterbalance the power and arrange for a solution that benefits most people. Sometimes, you wish your leader could do this, but it harms other people's interest, does it mean neglect of duty of the leader? No. When you get position as high as your leader, you will know how tough their job is. Yes, they have to listen to voter's voice, but they can't neglect opposition's opinions, because the political opponent also hold postions in government, what if they give zero fk to your policy? Then nothing could be done. Look at Indian, Africa and Latin America, they have more serious corruption than China. Their regime was the gift of western democracy, how are they working now? As effective as the west? Damn no!! Your logic is just too straight.

You thought Xi is a dictator? Then how about Jeong-eun Kim? So I can tell you now, why Xi is successful. Let's begin with Zhou Yongkang who is the secretary of the central committee, he is obviously abusing his power, as he can command the security forces, the legislation and judiciary system simultaneously. He caused serious distortions to the justice of our society. Anyone who gets close to power will get fast access to money under this system, if China starts with a mixture of state and crony capitalism, where bribes and connections determine who gets business, introducing new players may make little difference, which means any economy policies like introducing competitors to boost our economy with higher efficiency is useless. Not only Zhou Youngkang, but also other senior officials coming from the oil, electricity and infrastructure development field also have this kind problem, their rent seeking activities feed their own people, at the cost of harming other people‘s interest with little background. This is the real reason why China can't maintain an on going reform unless we clear all the illegal activities that may cause depatures from the law. And these people are the initiator of disrespectful to the law. So Xi will handle them first, once the obstacles are wiped out, and then PM Li Keqiang can tackle the real problem of our economy. But there is something I worry about, that is the reform of judicial system. I am glad to see it's being lifted on the agenda. China is not like the China 30 years ago, when labor are cheap, infrastructure is poor so that any primitive economic policy could boost our economy at higher growth rate easily, and we don't even need innovation at that time, because the money was too easy, this is called “demographic dividend”, a primitive solution. Now our economy is getting mature, the growth rate is slowing, the money is not easy, companies are producing less product unless they use innovation, which means we need a “sturctural dividend”, an advanved solution by establishing modern intellectual property right law and execution of contracts protection system. You know the rent seeking activities have caused huge cost for companies to start a business right? Our next goal is to lower the cost of doing business, encourage them to innovate, to cultivate their business goal more carefully with the protection of law. To sum up, China's reform can't be continued, unless we tackle the corruption by creating a sound system of modern business with the help of law.